UK trip no 2 of 2013

There could not have been a warmer day in the UK for the funeral of Susan's mother back in her home town of March in Cambridgeshire & to be surrounded by so many supportive relatives.

Max and Archie

An upside of the unscheduled trip was the opportunity of extra visits to our children and grandchildren, so we set off on the well-travelled circuit via Bransgore, Edinburgh, Bath and Epsom, taking in a couple of stopovers en route and spending our wedding anniversary at the same hotel we were at for our 25th. Unsurprisingly there was also shopping for boat bits to do, mostly on the Internet, despite the significant amount we had done on our first trip!

The Water of Leith, Edinburgh

Swinging on Corstorphine Hill

On 25 September we were back on Sea Bunny in Nongsa Point Marina.

Farewells

This is one big, air conditioned greenhouse

In what we thought was a final farewell to Singapore, a country that we have had a love hate relationship with for many years, we visited the Gardens by the Bay. Construction moves fast here; three years ago the docks were being moved from this site to reclaimed land. Monet once referred to his garden as his most beautiful masterpiece. This 101 hectare attraction with over 250 thousand rare plants in huge domed conservatories is perhaps Singapore's.
Ten days later, in  Nongsa Point Marina Indonesia the decks were scrubbed, the watermaker unpickled, the coms finally sorted & the departure email drafted. We were ready for our farewells on leaving towards South Africa.
Then, instead, we shall as the Australians say, be 'farewelling' Susan's 104 year old mother in the UK next week. The Glory of the Garden, Kipling's poem, will be read.
So it's farewell to the South African passage for this year & hello to the passage in 2014 (3rd time lucky?) - meanwhile we will find people to eat our fresh provisions!

Pitcher plants

Inside the flower dome

The trees

Back in Singapore

In June we returned to from the UK to Sea Bunny, which we had left at Puteri Harbour Marina in the Johor Straits. A good, very sheltered, place to leave a boat but fairly remote, with surrounding facilities still under development.

After a month there, more boat jobs, we checked out of Malaysia and in to Singapore, intending to spend 2 weeks in One15 marina before heading on to Indonesia. The main purpose of the visit was to have a major service on the engine.  However, various issues were found which kept us here for an extra 3 weeks.
The extended stay meant that Richard had to extend his landing pass. On entry into Singapore at least one person must be declared as crew; this person receives a crew landing permit stamp, which is valid for 2 weeks and does not permit leaving Singapore, in the passport. Passengers receive a visitor visa, duration according to nationality, 90 days for the UK. Until a few months ago extending the crew pass was a simple matter of taking the papers to immigration at the ferry terminal at Marina South Pier and getting a new stamp, costing MRT and bus fares. No longer! It is now necessary to hire an agent to do this at a cost of, in our case, SGD 150.

We also needed some engine parts, which could not be found in Singapore. Marking the package "Ships spares in transit" allows, in most countries except Thailand, importation free of duty and VAT/GST, under an international customs agreement. It does apparently also allow this in Singapore. Unfortunately, according to UPS, to benefit from this it is necessary to complete various forms and guarantees and possibly to hire an agent (again!) to carry out the clearance. In the case of our parts the fee was almost equal to the GST.

Sea Bunny dressed overall for National Day

Singapore National Day was on 9 August, just after the end of Ramadan holiday (Hari Raya/Eid-el-Fitr) on 8 August so there was effectively a 5 day holiday from Wednesday to Sunday. This did not affect us much as boat work continued, including fixing the boat central heating, which has not been used since Australia but may be needed as we head further south out of the tropics. Richard managed to flood the system with diesel which resulted in large clouds of dense white smoke when it eventually fired up, causing major concern to the marina staff and a reprimand from the marina manager for not informing them in advance.

Stowage & Play

We are asked lots of questions about how we cater for long passages ie about 3 weeks at a time at sea. The answer is a ridiculous amount of planning, lists & use of every spare space.

Flour stowage for passage

The photo shows enough flour for 50 loaves of bread stored under the salon table and dosed with chloroform to deter weevils
.
Shelves have been made in spaces behind draws to accommodate spare engine parts!
Even sailing boats are power hungry so parts for engine, generator, wind generator, water turbo & water maker have been procured. When the sea state is ferocious or the currents is strongly against us the iron donkey will be needed but remember that radar, computers & autopilots gobble up energy.

Daily Telegraph cryptic crossword on the iPad

Puteri Habour's new build is vast, the new 5 star hotel allowed us to use the pool FOC which overlooked the marina- here is Richard, the only user, relaxing with a crossword.

UK trip 2013

Highlights of this year's UK trip were

• Spending time with our children and grandchildren
• A trip to the highlands of Scotland
• The wedding of Susan's nephew Simon to Susie

Some photos

With Jane and Josh in the New Forest (new in the 11th century)

Camera-shy Jake

With James & Josh at Bucklers Hard

Ferret racing at Bransgore fair

Skiff racing at Achiltibuie

Max enjoying the cold water

The Newhaven skiff - The Wee Michael. Cox Cath & Steve at no 2

It was cold on the beach!

A warmer day - water temperature 7 C

Cox Susan

All this play is tiring!

The pass to Applecross (reputed to be highest in UK)

Water play in the garden

At the wedding with Susan's sister Sarah and Barrie

The happy couple with the groom's parents

Ghosting along

Heading south from PD, minding our own business with a light wind forward of the beam - we are of course motoring. Suddenly big noise from aft. Rope around the prop? Engine put hard astern then ahead again. Nothing - apart from more revs. Quick investigation below - the anti vibration disc between the gearbox and the shaft is no longer attached to the gearbox flange. No problem! Sail for a while while the engine cools a bit and rejoin them.

Some time later the engine is cooler but the shaft can be neither rotated nor slid forward - both normally easy. There must still be something around the propeller (or - horror of horrors - a bent shaft). Meanwhile there is now some wind and we are heading towards our  target destination at up to 7 kn. 

We need to close the coast to anchor and dive on the propeller but the coastline is lined with oil jetties and the sea littered with anchored tankers.

Our guardian

Once South of Tanjung Bruas the oil installations finish. By the time Sea Bunny gets there the wind has died to about 3 kn and the tide has turned against us. We crab shorewards avoiding being swept onto anchored ships by the tide and anchor in 7.5 m, hopefully sufficiently inshore not to be in the way of the ships and tugs.

An anchored tug observes our progress and raises its anchor so that we do not drift into her. She re-anchors some 100 m from us and stays there overnight - looking after us, we think.

The pilot variously states the time of the tide change as 1 hour before local LW or 3:30 after HW Penang. The former gives 1530, the latter 1830. At 1600 the tide is still running strongly, so it seems 1830 may be the time. It was - R was able to push the propeller and shaft back from outside while snorkelling - the dive gear had been prepared in anticipation of a longer job. There was in fact no rope around the propeller.

A couple of hours later all was reconnected ready for us to move on the next day to Pualu Besar in the Water Islands, then Pulau Pisang (literally Banana Island). Finally we arrived at Puteri Harbour Marina in The Johor Strait between Malaysia and Singapore.

Port Dickson

Continuing southwards, Sea Bunny spent nights anchored off Pulau Pangkor and Pulau Angsa before stopping at Port Dickson.

New rope - R didn't really want his picture taken!

A primary reason for stopping at PD was to visit Cordage International's rope factory at nearby Seremban. At one point we thought this might not happen as we had been told of people being quoted MYR 400 (about £85) for a day's car hire. In the event Sara, the marina receptionist, put us in touch with a hirer with much more sensible prices, although the car had automatic transmission that occasionally slipped, a cracked windscreen and, as we discovered when paying motorway tolls, windows that did not open!

Cordage International is a major manufacturer and supplier to US and UK rope brands as well as to the Royal Malaysian Navy. However, they are pleased to supply direct to yachties. Sashi, the Technical Director made us welcome while a replacement furling line was made up from  6mm dyneema spliced to 10 mm polyester double braid. We also got 100 m of 16 mm nylon double braid for replacement dock lines (with a lot to spare), 35 m of 12 mm polyester double braid for a replacement topping lift and another 25 m to replace the purchases on the running backstays. Prices were very significantly below chandlery prices. The next day Richard returned for more double braid to replace the purchases on the running backstays. On this second visit he met Ben, Sashi's father, who founded the company.

Milin, on Nae Hassle, told us of a chandlery in an unlikely location near Lukup, just off the motorway between PD and Seremban. Having failed to find it on our first trip we tried again. In the midst of a small yard where they build small fishing boats and up a staircase we found a small, chaotic but reasonably well-stocked chandlery. We succeeded in acquiring a boathook, some spring reinforced hose, a catch for the anchor well and the penny washers that had eluded Richard in Penang.